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Senecas to develop golf course

As rumored for months, the Seneca Niagara Falls Gaming Corp. will own a planned new golf course here.

The 250-acre property bought by Old Creek Development, headed by Lewiston attorney Michael J. Dowd, was sold Feb. 15 to the Senecas' casino corporation for $2.1 million, according to land records at the Niagara County clerk's office.

Dowd could not be reached Sunday, but at a Dec. 29 Town Board meeting where the board approved the sale of a chunk of land to Old Creek, he promised that if the Senecas took control of the golf course, it would be fully taxable.

He said it could not become sovereign Seneca Nation land without an act of the State Legislature.

The site of the 18-hole championship-level course is bounded by the Robert Moses Parkway and Creek, Raymond and Pletcher roads.

At first the town was going to fund the course itself, but that changed when Dowd told the Town Board in June that he was going to buy the land and bring in a third party, which turned out to be the Senecas, to help him develop it.